Gov. Bill Ritter has signed a law to broaden civil protection orders in Colorado to include pets. It includes threats or acts of violence against pets as part of the definition of abuse of spouses, the elderly and at-risk adults.

Dr. Frank Ascione, a psychologist who heads the institute, testified in the legislature on behalf of the bill introduced by Sen. Linda Newell and Rep. Jerry Frangas. Ascione has done research that shows that pets sometimes are used as leverage against abuse victims.

Before coming to DU, he joined several other researchers in a 2007 study of domestic violence and animal abuse. It asked 100 women who had not been abused by their spouses whether their pets had. Only 5 percent said yes. When 100 women who had been abused were asked if their pets had, too, 54 percent said yes.

“Senate Bill 80 will give law enforcement the ability to protect families, children and those who are at-risk,” said Gov. Ritter. “This legislation fills a gap between civil and criminal law to protect families.”

Rep. Newell added: “Abusers and stalkers often follow a ‘pattern of crime over time': damage property, injure or kill a pet, then attack their victim. This will close a gap in our law to provide law enforcement and the courts with another tool to prevent domestic violence and potentially save lives.”

Ascione and his team at the institute have been studying the many – and sometimes unexpected – ways pets influence the behavior and well-being of humans. They recently launched an ambitious effort to examine how animal abuse cases are handled through every step of the system in Colorado.

On April 1, the ASPCA launched “Fight Animal Cruelty,” a web component that is accessible via www.aspca.org. The website includes a comprehensive anti-cruelty database allowing users to learn about humane laws and designated penalties in their state and a humane directory to locate local humane law enforcement agencies. The site section also includes anti-cruelty prevention tips and links to articles, success stories and online advocacy campaigns.

Weight: Pet owners should take steps to provide their pet with a nutritious, balanced diet, complemented by daily exercise to ensure their pet’s weight remains within the recommended range (which varies by breed and animal).

Pain Management: In the wild, showing pain makes an animal easy prey. So if a pet is in pain, their instinct is to hide it. However, ignoring or overlooking changes in a pet’s behavior may lead to a small problem becoming much bigger.Changes in attitude, activity levels and ability or interest in regular activities like climbing stairs or taking walks are clues that help veterinarians diagnose pain.

Parasites: Fleas, ticks and other parasites flourish in warmer temperatures and often live in areas pets love to explore. Many parasites found on pets can be transmitted to humans. Regular check-ups keep pets parasite-free and their owner’s skin from crawling.

Wellness: For pets, an annual check-up is like going to the doctor once in seven years. During that time a lot can change, making annual wellness exams critical to quality pet care. Thorough examinations and screenings are key to catching small problems before they become more difficult to manage.

* * *

PET CALENDAR

Colorado State University veterinarians will provide free eye exams to service dogs on May 22 at the university’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Guide dogs, handicapped assistance dogs, detection dogs and search and rescue dogs can participate in the eye exam event with an appointment. Registration for appointments ends May 16. The hospital is at 300 W. Drake Road in Fort Collins. To qualify, dogs must be active working dogs who are certified by a formal training program or organization or currently enrolled in a formal training program. The certifying organization must be national, regional or local.

To obtain a free exam, service dog owners must complete two separate steps. Owners must first register their animal via an online registration form at www.acvoeyeexam.org by May 16. Once registered online, the owner should contact the CSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital at (970)-297-4137. Appointments are available from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The four-year-old black Labrador was thought to be the heaviest dog in Scotland at 64kg (141 pounds).

Bob’s owner just couldn’t resist over-feeding him a diet of fish suppers and four tins of dog food a day.

That was enough for the authorities, according to a story on the British Broadcasting Corporation website. Bob was confiscated, put on a strict diet and placed in a new home.

Bob has since shed a third of his body weight. His previous owner was convicted of causing unnecessary suffering by over-feeding him, making him lighter in the wallet.

So all’s well that ends well? Not so fast.

While Bob’s case might br extreme, it’s not unusual. Some 44 percent of dogs and 57 percent of cats in America are overweight, according to the 2008 National Pet Obesity Awareness Study. (No figures were available for Scotch hounds.)

Some animal workers are calling pet obesity an epidemic. A local expert, Dr. Paige Garnett of Care Animal Hospital in Aurora, doesn’t go quite that far. She says things haven’t changed much in the past decade.

Garnett taught a weight-management class to fellow doctors several years ago and put together a program that animal clinics can use.

“Overweight animal statistics are similar to humans,’ Garnett said last week “About 50 percent of the dogs and cats we see at my clinic are overweight.”

“It’s a big problem,” she allowed. ” You throw dog food in a bowl and think, ‘That’s not very much.’ But we’re seeing a lot of overweight pets.”

Lack of exercise is a concern, Garnett said, but the big issue is cutting down calories.

“A large dog biscuit has as many calories as a Snickers bar,” she said.

The long-term effects of obesity are serious, Garnett added. For dogs, they include torn knee ligaments, diabetes and heart trouble. For cats, they include diabetes, heart and liver disease.

She said mixing green beans or air-popped popcorn with pet food is one strategy to reduce calories, as is giving animals baby carrots rather than pet snacks.

Garnett works with clients at her clinic to come up with a plan tailored to them.

She’s seeking two outcomes:

* To be able to feel the pet’s ribs while not seeing them.

* To be able to see a pet’s waistline.

It takes continous effort to keep an animal trim. Some of them won’t quit eating until every scrap is gone. As a way of stressing this, Garnett tells a little joke on herself.

“My dog, a border collie, gained 15 pounds after being spayed,” she said. “Everybody in the clinic was giving me a bad time.”

* * *

Scientists have uncovered the first-known example of human bacteria infecting an animal species, according to a recent article in The Times of London.

Researchers at Edinburgh University have traced a serious infection in poultry back to a single human-to-animal jump. It occurred about 38 years ago, possibly in the region of Poland.

The process is the first to be discovered in the 10,000 years since animals were domesticated, The Times said.

Staphylococcus aureus, a subtype of MRSA, is now endemic in chickens. It is a leading cause of bone and joint infections, which makes them lame and in turn leads to them being culled, and is a serious economic burden to the industry, according to the article.

S. aureus, which lives in the human nose, probably jumped from its human handler while he or she was handling a chicken. Changing agricultural practices meant that the bacteria then spread through the chicken population, the Times said.

It is not believed it can transmit back to humans.

* * *

An emergency team from the Englewood-based American Humane Association has been in Tennessee caring for animals during an investigation of alleged animal abuse and cruelty at the City of Memphis Animal Shelter. The team’s help was requested by the Shelby County District Attorney.

According to the warrant that was served last week, “Detectives have learned that some animals have been deprived of food and water while at the Memphis Animal Shelter,” and while in the shelter’s care, “…some dogs have been starved to the point of requiring euthanasia.”

In addition, the warrant reported unsanitary conditions, overcrowding, and vicious and sick animals being housed along with other pets.

For the cats – Rocky Mountain Alley Cat Alliance hosts a jewelry shopping party and bake sale to benefit The Feline Fix – its new spay/neuter cat clinic — on Saturday, Nov. 21 from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Guests will enjoy refreshments as well as baked goods for their Thanksgiving dinners and handmade jewelry for the ladies on their holiday shopping list. This holiday event will be held at the Whittier Neighborhood Association Community Center at 2900 Downing Street in Denver – across the street from the light rail. Contact: Info@RMACA.org.

In August 2006, an 11-year-old Gypsum boy stabbed his black-and-white Labrador mix dog in a fit of anger after fighting with his brother. The dog, Spike, yelped, limped into the kitchen and died in a pool of his own blood.

When his mother was asked if the boy had exhibited that kind of anger previously, she told investigators that he had been abused by her former boyfriend when the family lived in Arizona.

Once again, something had gone terribly wrong with the human-animal link.

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who murdered randomly at Columbine High School in 1999, may have also been animal abusers. According to a leading psychiatrist, violent criminals often have childhood histories of animal abuse.

Mental health professionals and law enforcement officials have long recognized the link between animal abuse and violence towards humans. The FBI uses animal abuse as an indicator in profiling serial killers.

Such incidents generally are widely recognized. What is less known, perhaps, is that two Denver area animal welfare organizations have been instrumental in groundbreaking research seeking information into the link between violence to people and violence to animals.

“There’s a lot of attention to creating more science around The Link,” said David Gies, executive director of the Animal Assistance Foundation, which began with a large endowment from animal lover and Coors family member Louise C. Harrison. “We’re working to better understand animal cruelty.”

Fetch takes a topical look at a variety of issues affecting pets, including the latest research results.. It seeks to provide useful information for Colorado pet owners and to spotlight the work of Colorado animal welfare groups.